Catching Up

Since last time I posted so much has been going on in the O'Neal house that I can hardly keep up.  So to make my mind feel a bit more at ease and get to cross something off my never ending list here is what has been going on over the past 2 weeks!

We sent in our $5,000 to Dillon for the first program fee and home study fee and now are just waiting on our social worker to contact us with a date for the home study which I am SO hoping to hear by tomorrow.

We finished our last round of t-shirt sales through Explosion Sportswear and should be receiving them soon so we can get them out to all of you who ordered.  To those of you who have asked about ordering after the link closed, we did order some extras so once we get them here and figured out I will announce what sizes we have and it will just be first come first serve.  This was our biggest order yet and we are so appreciative to everyone who ordered.  In the future we will be making our own t-shirts but probably won't start that task till after the holidays.  We also had a free T-shirt contest and my friend Kelly Jo won!

Today of course was Orphan Sunday but we are going to be hosting an event to celebrate it later this month.  We are meeting with one of our pastor's this week to get the plans set but are so excited as in the last couple months we have went from seemingly like an oddity in our small community for pursuing international adoption to feeling like we have become the "go-to" people to talk to about adoption or anything related to orphans and we couldn't be happier.  There is nothing more gratifying to me than to share education on something I am so passionate about.

My parents came down from Illinois last weekend and we got to take them to the OKC Zoo and then to the Queen of Sheba to experience wonderful Ethiopian cuisine.  They also got to meet Mimi, the owner and the most hospitable and friendly person around.  We also got to celebrate Jalen's birthday (part 1) and then take him trick-or-treating, it was a long busy weekend but we had so much fun!  Then last Monday we found out our house in Arizona finally (after 16 mths on the market for a short sale) sold and closed so we are now single home owners...YAY!!!!!!

 Now for our busy upcoming week.  Our angel Jalen will be turning 2 years old on Wednesday November 10th and next Sat, Nov 13th we are having his birthday party (part 2) and are so excited that The Helms Family will be joining us!  For those of you who don't know, Hilary and I have known each other since 5th grade (almost 20 years) and after 10 years of living across the country from one another and losing touch, we now live 2 hrs away and get to go through this crazy thing called adoption together.  It all started with a phone call back in March between us about the idea of adopting and now look it is really becoming a reality and has been a life-changing event for both of our families!  Can't wait to see ya Hil!